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Thursday, August 22, 2013

So, a few days after the Steampunk Festival I came down with a really nasty cold that put me out for pretty much the whole week. I slept for days... days on end. It was one of those colds where the congestion makes your head feel like it's full of bricks.

I was back to work by Friday, and despite a few lingering sniffles and sneezes, am doing much better this week. Nothing is worse than a summer cold.

Being sick put a bit of a damper on my productivity, and I felt a little behind, but I have been working hard this week and am catching up... again! A constant game of catch up. I have been working on a few things, aside from my regular orders. Firstly, I am re-doing my Betty Pattern because I have learned alot about the process, and it needed a facelift. I finished this weekend and will relist soon! I know I've been receiving emails about it daily, and I appreciate everyone's patience :)

I am also working on new samples, and ready made garments. Christmas/Holidays are coming fast and this year I hope to have lots of ready-made pieces for gift-giving.

I have had a few other things going on that I will hopefully be able to share with you soon, that have been otherwise distracting...

Dan and I are also sneaking in some last-minute summer fun. Last weekend we went to the Simcoe County Museum. It's a small museum, with a large outdoor section with old farm-equipment, old log-cabins, and pioneer buildings. They had a blacksmith doing demonstrations, and homemade ice cream. I love this museum. It is full of every day treasures, things that people would have used on a daily basis. That is the kind of history I love...

I am too young to have toys of my childhood in a museum!

Beware the Hurse / Ambulance

Last Saturday, Abbey and her brother and sister-in-law came up and we went out for lunch. It was also the Classic Car Show, so I wandered around with Dan, and we talked about his dream 'Rat Rod' that he will one day have...

This weekend we are headed off for probably our final camping trip of the season. We were going to camp locally but most of the parks are pretty booked up, so we will trek up North to our favourite spot... This time we are bringing Oliver. Despite the fact that he likes the outdoors, he is not an 'avid' camper. Last time we took him, he spent most of his time sitting in the car...

Last summer sucked. I was so busy with two jobs that we didn't get to have any fun. We camped once, and I had not the greatest time... this year, I am trying my best to make time for fun.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Yesterday, I did my first show! I was at the Coldwater Steampunk Festival. I had no idea what to expect, but it ended up being a lot of fun! I'm already excited about next year.

It was a great learning experience. It was a small show, with just a small number of vendors at the Coldwater Museum. They had a really great side show, musicians, a tea party... it was really fun. Plus, I got to wander around the museum which was absolutely full of treasures, like old sewing machines and supplies (including a dressmakers doll), and a vintage perm-machine (photo later in the post) which was kind of terrifying, but awesome. It was a great opportunity to chat with people from the area, and now I totally want to move to Coldwater....

I had never done anything like this before, so I really wasn't sure how much to prepare, or what I would need. Considering Dan and I pulled many of these things together late Friday night, we put together a pretty good booth. I have lots of ideas for next time... and am dreaming of having a booth at some bigger events in Orillia next summer (time permitting!).

The best part of the day is that Abbey came to visit me. She hung out with Dan and I for half the day, then we all went for dinner afterwards. It was a great day. Though, I am exhausted today....

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

This past weekend was a long weekend for many people in lovely Ontario. It's not a statutory holiday, so I've normally always worked, and planned to work this holiday as well, but I was sick! Yeah, like with a stuffed up nose and headache. I slept for like 12 hours. So, that kind of sucked.

This coming Saturday I am vending at the Coldwater Steampunk Festival, which is being held at the museum in Coldwater (just outside of Orillia). I'm really looking forward to it. It's fairly small, so will be a good first-vending opportunity for me. This weekend, Dan and I set up the tent I bought for the occasion, and Dan painted me a sign to hang. On Monday, I planned to turn out a ton of panties, but my body obviously had other things in mind... In my old age (sarcasm), I'm learning to really listen to my body. Yeah, I'm only 30, but I can't do what I did when I was 21 any more, it just slows me down too much. So, I feel way better today and plan on having a productive day.

The other thing that is slowing me down is my sewing machine is in the shop. I have my mom's to sew on, but I find it so hard to sew on another machine. All the buttons are in different places, and the pedal speed is different... so it has been a challenge. To be honest, my moms machine is way nicer than mine, and it is what I used to sew on, but I had become so accustomed to my clunker that it's hard to go back to the Mercedes Benz of sewing machines.

On Saturday, Dan and I went out and did some touristy things in our area. We went to the Wye Marsh, and walked the trails. We saw a weasel, a water snake, lots of turtles, tad poles, fish, owls (in captivity)... and lots and lots of birds. It was really nice. I haven't been there in ages.

ahh! Snake!!!

After that, we went to Saint Marie Among the Hurons, which is a reconstructed Jesuit settlement (Ontario's first European settlement!). It's pretty cool, I like being around all of the old fashioned buildings and artifacts. Everything is just so simple and beautiful (their lives would have been extremely difficult though). I really like the simple architecture. The long house was one of my favourite areas. So large and open inside. Many of the other buildings were extremely dark inside. The Jesuit sleeping quarters in particular, were small little cubicle type rooms with no windows. They were pitch black. So dark, it was actually pretty creepy...

Then Sunday I started not feeling well, and Monday was a write-off. That was our weekend. I like getting out and playing tourist in our own area. I love learning about our local history.

Oliver's eye seems to have healed, and is now a beautiful chocolate brown again, just like his other eye. No more gross blood-eye. I will call the vet today and have him in again for another look-over... and hopefully everything will turn out fine.

Now, I am off to start my day and hopefully have a more productive one than the last two days. I hope that if anyone is in the Orillia/Midland/Barrie/Muskoka area, you will be able to come out to Coldwater this Saturday to check out the festival, and maybe pick up a pair of handmade panties!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

There is something seriously wrong with Oliver's eye. On Thursday night I noticed it looked really red, and when I looked closer I realized the entire iris/pupil area (if you are squeamish about eye things stop reading now) was filled with blood, likely nearly opaque and very, very red. I am squeamish so it really freaked me out. I called my vet right away, but they were closing, and the vet on staff couldn't say for certain whether it was an emergency, but recommended taking caution. Being the over protective pug-mama I am, I asked Dan to take us to the emergency animal clinic in Barrie...

I've never had to use the emergency clinic before. It is just like going to the ER. The family ahead of us had a cat that looked pretty severely injured, and was howling and howling. I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a soft spot for animals. The minute I saw this poor kitty, my eyes welled up with tears... the worst part was there was a little girl there with the cat, probably about 12 years old. She was trying to stay strong and comfort the cat, but the situation got the best of her and she let out the saddest sob I have ever heard. Well, that was the last of me. The tears were flowing.

Obviously the cat was in a worse situation than Oliver, so we had to wait a bit. When we finally got in, and the vet took a look at Oliver, he pretty quickly determined that the two worst case situations would be a) glaucoma or b) possible rat poisioning. He took Oliver to the back for tests and quickly found that there was no pressure build up in either eye, and all of Oliver seemed otherwise happy and healthy (though stressed to be at the vet). It was determined that he had hyphema of undetermined cause... So, he decided it would be best to wait until morning, to take Oliver to my vet, where more tests could be done (at half the price, emergency clinics are expensive!). So, we went on our way with some eye drops to keep the eye dilated, and a couple hundred dollars poorer... The scariest part of that night is that Oliver went completely blind in that eye. Couldn't see a thing...

Friday morning the eye looked quite a bit better, and his vision had returned, but I called my vet anyway and got him an appointment that morning. My vet took his blood pressure, etc., asked me some questions as to whether he had hurt himself... I didn't think so, but Oliver is kind of... crazy, and runs like a maniac and does run into things like fences, me, etc... so blunt trauma is completely possible. She couldn't get a good look into his eye because it still had a lot of blood in it. As far as she could tell, there was no obvious cause for the hyphema... I did notice that while he was sitting in the waiting room that they eye appeared a little worse again, and that Oliver was very stressed. She recommended that I keep him calm, and try to get him to rest for the weekend, keep him away from bright lights, and call back Tuesday (it is a long weekend here in Ontario). At that point, we hope that the blood will dissipate more and she will be able to see if there is any damage inside the eye. After that, I will most likely have to take him to a canine opthamologist, which thankfully, there is one just in Midland, which is only about half an hour away.

The good thing is, he does not appear to be in any pain. He's acting completely normal, wanting to eat, drink, play, gets super excited when we come home, etc... So I am grateful for that. The eye still looks weird. I put in atropine drops yesterday morning to dilate the eye, and it is still very dilated. I can't tell if it looks any better... it is pretty cloudy... but I am pretty sure he can see out of it.

I am also very grateful for the emergency clinic and their staff, who are very kind and thorough. Although it was a very expensive night out, having peace of mind that Oliver would be ok, was worth it. I am just hoping that it clears up and was a freak occurrence, and everything will be fine. My dog is my best friend, so I hate to see anything bad happen to him. I really wish he could just talk to me and tell me what's going on... does it hurt? Did something happen? Can you see?

So... has anyone ever had an animal experience anything like this? I am glad that Oliver seems otherwise healthy, but it is still scary. I am afraid that I'm going to end up with a one-eyed pup.